Sunaana Festival Year Two Recap

As the second annual Sunaana Music and Beer festival comes to a close, Madi Murphy recaps this year’s activities. See you next year Sunaana!

“Traveling to Maine at the start of March to attend a festival may not sound like the ideal way to kick off your spring break, but the Sunaana Music and Beer Festival located in the recently renovated Brick South on Thompson’s Point in Portland, MA proved otherwise. As explained by co-founder Patrick Arnold in an interview with The AU Review, “When we launched Sunaana last year, our focus was on doing something wildly fun in the City of Portland at the coldest part of the New England winter.” And it’s just that. Sunaana— Inuit for ‘what is it’— is an all-ages, two day festival that embraces the winter and creates a cozy environment for all festival goers. Soft lighting filled the venue as the crowd explored the various food trucks and craft beer while music from Maine acts like The American Classic and Icelandic acts like Axel Flovent and CeaseTone filled the air.

Most of the line-up was curated by Darren Elder— owner of revered local studio The Halo. One of the first day’s acts, The American Classic, recorded at The Halo and described Elder as “one of the busiest and best dudes.” They along with several others on the line-up ensured a local feel that will surely help to cement Sunaana as an annual cultural event to be enjoyed by the people of Portland and beyond.

Having attended Sunaana’s inaugural year in 2017, it was great to see how far things had come along for its second. I enjoyed food from local food venders Mr. Tuna and Thirsty Pig while exploring the taste of Norwegian Mack Microbrewery’s IPA On Tour beer before joining the crowd for a unique experience: Icelandic artist JFDR performing with MYRO (Maine Youth Rock Orchestra). Something that could only happen at Sunaana.

Sunaana is certainly off to a good start with a long-term vision of becoming “a community-wide event that embraces all elements of the Portland identity,” and I for one can’t wait to see what next year will bring.” – Madi Murphy

In case you missed it, make sure to check out Madi’s exclusive Sunaana interviews here!